


You're the Only Place that Feels Like Home

by iktwabrokenbone (apiculteur)



Series: Line of Symmetry [2]
Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Break Up, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 15:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3072932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apiculteur/pseuds/iktwabrokenbone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh and Tyler had always loved each other, but it hadn't always included sex or them being (one-sidedly) in love. It was platonic, then it was other things too, then a huge mess. Two months was long enough to mend any tears, and another six months after that was long enough for Tyler to meet Jenna.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're the Only Place that Feels Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> writing this made me realise that i havent written a star trek au in ages, and i am yet to finish the sequel to the wtnv thing. wtnv will definitely happen at some point, and idk more star trek might happen since that still makes me vomit rainbows of happiness.
> 
> title from i slept with someone from fob
> 
> happy new year btw!! its 00:05 here so congrats on surviving the year, keep on keepin' on, ily.

Josh and Tyler had always loved each other, but it hadn't always included sex or them being (one-sidedly) in love. It was platonic, then it was other things too, then a huge mess. Two months was long enough to mend any tears, and another six months after that was long enough for Tyler to meet Jenna.

Tyler met Jenna, and their relationship wasn't quite instant, but it was close to it. Right from the start, the fact that it was going to end up being romantic was obvious. Sure, they were friends too, but they were always something more than friends too.

Jenna gave him gentle kisses and giggly 'I love you's, and he could tell she meant that she was in love with him. They were in love, and they were soft and happy. She reminded him of sunsets and warm tea and the quiet strumming of a ukulele. She was mellow and honest and their relationship was everything that he and Josh had never been, most likely would never be.

***

Josh knew before way he and Jenna started dating that Tyler liked her. There was no talking about it, just Josh beginning to joke about it, and then saying that they'd actually be a cute couple. He was relieved, he had to be.

Once, sometime in high school, one of Tyler's friends had admitted to having a crush on him, and Tyler had hardly ever felt more guilty than when he turned him down, or more awkward than during the classes they shared. After a while, they both got over it, but it still sucked. And this wasn't just a high school crush that Tyler had admitted to him, this was full-blown being _in love_ , and almost constantly together. And Tyler had been _crying_ just a few seconds before telling him, to make it worse.

So Josh was probably happy that Tyler had someone else now, and that was understandable.

***

Déjà vu wasn't necessarily an unpleasant feeling, depending upon the situation, but it always made Tyler feel uncomfortable. His skin would crawl, and he could never shake the little part of his mind that insisted he had probably time travelled, or he had been there before but his memory had been wiped. So maybe it was an unpleasant feeling, especially when he got it when he saw Josh, sitting in their living room sometime early in the morning.

He looked tired, his eyes focused on his reflection in the TV screen rather than whatever terrible eighties show re-run was on. It was obvious he was deep in thought about Important Things, something which Tyler would probably be wrong to disturb him from. Silently, he sat down beside him, waited until Josh looked up.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked.

Josh didn't bother to smile. They both knew that he wasn't good at faking them, least of all when they were directed at Tyler. "Kinda bad." He didn't elaborate further, so Tyler didn't prod.

Tyler shifted closer, let Josh lean on him.

"I love you," Josh whispered.

"I love you too."

They fell asleep.

***

Josh didn't hang around with Tyler and Jenna anymore. He would go places with Tyler _or_ Jenna, but if the two of them were going to be there and the same time, he made some excuse. From the way he acted about it, Tyler was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to notice.

Honestly, maybe he was wrong. He wouldn't deny still feeling _something_ other than their intense friendship, maybe sexual attraction, maybe remaining romantic attraction- he didn't think into it, because he had Jenna, and none of those extra feelings should be there at all.

So maybe he was just twisting things around, a series of coincidences made to seem like he was uncomfortable with their relationship. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to be the reason behind it. Whatever he wanted, it wouldn't be that. They had been friends for years, and before Jenna, neither of them had been a relationship at the same time as they were friends. Josh probably just felt left out, or slightly jealous that Tyler had to spend time with Jenna now, as well as him.

Tyler was being an asshole. Even if it was just a tiny part of him which craved Josh's jealousy, he needed to shut that part of him up. Jenna deserved better than this- he loved her as a friend and a lover, and she deserved better than Tyler to still be a bit hung up on someone who he never even _dated_ , he was so much less than the boyfriend Jenna should have.

***

More late nights and conversations in front of the muted TV. During the day, they would mainly just joke around, but this late-night talks were different. Sometimes it was the usual messing around, but something about dim lighting and three in the morning almost always ended up with them drifting towards deeper topics.

There were more silences at this time of night, too. Josh was the one to break it this time.

"I'm in love with you," he said.

Tyler didn't feel as happy or as uncomfortable as he should have. It made sense, with the way Josh had been acting. It could've worked out, if Josh had realised a few months earlier. "Couldn't you have figured that out a bit earlier?"

He wasn't angry or upset or much of anything. The main emotion Josh's confession had brought out were just him wishing that he could change things, make it so he had never started dating Jenna or Josh had never realised he was in love with Tyler. Something so he didn't have to feel like he was choosing between his best friend and girlfriend.

"Sorry." He did sound sorry, to an extent, but they both knew he couldn't have changed how it turned out.

There wasn't much more to be said on the subject. There was another silence, and then they were talking about something else.

***

He explained it all to Jenna. That Josh was in love with him, and that he had been in love with Josh, and he might still be. At this point, he honestly wasn't sure. His feelings for Josh had never been black and white, and he was pretty sure that trying to separate his romantic and platonic love for Josh would be like mushing two colours of Play-Doh together and then trying to get them apart again.

He didn't want to break up with Jenna. He told her because he would feel like he was practically cheating on her if he didn't, and she didn't deserve that. It was obvious from the look on her face when he told her that they were going to break up.

"Tyler, I'm sorry, but you know we can't keep this going," she said.

He nodded. He had realised as soon as he told her, and it was the right thing, really. It was wrong to date anyone, never mind someone as amazing as Jenna, when he didn't have his feelings for someone else sorted out.

"Yeah," he whispered. They were both close to tears but not quite crying. He didn't want to cry in front of her, or anyone, really. He waited until he was home, curled up under a blanket in his room, to let it out.

***

He didn't tell Josh, but he was pretty sure Josh had heard him, despite how hard he tried to be quiet. The next morning was filled with more silences than most nights. They didn't speak much, and when they did it was about whether Tyler wanted a coffee, or whether he wanted to watch TV. Things they would normally say but without the chat between it.

As was becoming some kind of tradition, they didn't talk about it until it was late and they were feeling vulnerable.

"Sorry," Josh told him. Tyler didn't need to ask what about.

"It's not your fault," he said. "We would've broken up anyway. I still felt something for you before you told me."

"Still shouldn't have told you."

A part of him agreed, so he could've kept Jenna for longer. They would probably end up friends again after a while, but it felt like a loss anyway. He had to remind himself that this would've happened either way. "It's better that you told me."

Josh didn't reply. Another silence, another conversation to break it, and it repeated until they fell asleep, as it had the days before.

**Author's Note:**

> skeleboyfriends is always my endgame but i dont mean to belittle her or the relationship she has with tyler by always making them break up. thats just bc i am skeleboyfriends af. ((sry for the ending i didnt want it to feel rushed))
> 
> im a bit slow on prompts atm but theyre still a thing which happens so send me one [here](http://iktwabrokenbone.tumblr.com/ask) if u wanna.


End file.
